Improvement in fire-escapes



UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

HENRY HUTH, OF MILTON, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND JOHN H. SGHREINER,

' OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN FIRE-'ESCAPES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 191,762. dated June 12,1877; application filed April 28, 1877.

-drawing, and to the letters of reference marked thereon, which formpart of this specification.

My invention relates to fire-escapes or lifesaving apparatus; and itconsists in the construction. of a ladder made of metal, in sections,united by links, so as to be folded in small compass and attachedpermanently inside of a house, as will be hereinafter more fully setforth. p

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my invention.appertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe itsconstruction and operation, referring to the annexed drawing, in which--V Figure 1 is a front elevation of a house, showing my ladder inposition. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same, and Figs. 3 and 4are rnlarged detail views of my invention.

Each section of my ladder is madeof two parallel side bars, A A, made ofmetal, either round or of other suitable form, and the ends of said barsflattened to form ears or projections a a. In each section is around orcross-bar, B, passing through the ears or at one end of the section, orrather the cross-bar has tenons b at its ends passing through said ears.On each side of each car a, on the tenon b, is placed a link, d, and theother ends of these links are pivoted to the open end of the adjoiningsection of the ladder, the whole thus forming'a jointed or flexiblemetallic ladder, which can be folded together in small com-pass.

This ladder is intended to be permanently attached inside of a houseunder a window,

as shown, so that, in case of fire, by raising or taking out thewindow-sash the ladder can be easily thrown out of the window, and willunfold itself and hang down on the outside of the building.

When the ladder is folded inside of the room it is covered by a box, 0,which is hinged at its inner end to the floor, and can be readily thrownback when the ladder is to be used. This box may be covered orornamented in any suitable manner, so as to present a neat and handsomeappearance in the room.

In practice, I intend the ladder to be several feet longer than tosimply reach to the ground, so that, in case fire should be coming outthrough the windows between the person descending on the ladder and theground, parties on the ground can take hold of the lower end of theladder and stretch the same outward in an inclined position, allowingthe person to descend without injury from the fire.

One of these ladders is to be permanently affixed in every room of abuilding, afibrding ample means to escape from fire, and thus in manycases save life.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Ina folding fire-escape, the double links d d, pivoted at one end to theside bars by a pin, and at the other end to the adjoining side bars bythe rounds or cross-bars B, all constructed and arranged to operate inthe manner and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I affix my signaturein presence of two witnesses.

HENRY HUTH."

Witnesses:

FRANK GALT, W. 0. MOARTHUR.

